REPORT UNDERSCORES NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE'S IRRELEVANCE

May 13, 2005

The National Urban League's "State of Black America" report for 2005 ignores every essential reform that would empower blacks, says Star Parker, president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education.

The report lists 10 prescriptions for change, eight of which are government programs. Of the other two, one suggests blacks tithe and volunteer more and the other admonishes blacks to focus on savings, investing and estate planning.

There is barely a hint in the league report that black problems might have anything to do with things other than politics, Parker says. The crisis in the black community today is a crisis of values, not a crisis of politics, as the league would have us believe.

Some 48 percent of black families vs. 82 percent of white families are headed by married couples and 43 percent of black families vs. 13 percent of white families are headed by a woman with no spouse.

Black women are three times more likely than white women to have an abortion and 70 percent of black babies vs. 23 percent of white babies are born to unwed mothers.

Blacks represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, but account for more than 50 percent of new AIDS cases.

Parker says it is not accidental how on the questions of government policy, the league ignores every essential reform that would empower blacks.

The real challenge, she says, is for today's blacks to regain control and take responsibility for their own lives; exactly the opposite message from the message of the National Urban League.